Conveyor roll



April 30, 1963 B. E. NELSON CONVEYOR ROLL Filed July 19, 1960 FIG. 4

FIG. 6

INVENTOR. BROOKS E. NELSON (9%, m@ & .BOW

ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofllice 3,087,599 Patented Apr. 30, 1963 3,087,599 CONVEYOR ROLL Brooks E. Nelson, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, assignor to The Osborn Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed July 19, 1969, Ser. No. 43,774 6 Claims. (Cl. 198127) This invention relates generally, as indicated, to a conveyor roll and more particularly to a rotary brush construction which may be utilized as a conveyor roll or belt pulley.

Power driven rotary brushes have been used as conveyor rolls for various purposes, e.g., a plurality of cylindrical rotary brushes having stainless steel wire bristles have been utilized to advance heavy slabs of aluminum through long heating furnaces at temperatures in the range of 1100 F. When brush bristles are forcibly pressed against the surface, i.e., normal to the axis of the brush, they will, of course, deflect and the direction of deflection may be erratic or largely in one lateral direction or the other. It has been found that cylindrical brushes formed of helically wound brush strip did not simply shift the work axially of the brush due to a screw thread action consequent upon the helical arrangement of the brush strip, but the work might actually be shifted in the direction opposite to that of the helical screw thread action. In many cases, the work would simply be rotated around without being advanced through the oven at all. Similar problems are encountered when brushes are used as pulleys for conveyor belts, belt sanders and the like.

In a normal brush construction, when the brush filament is subjected to a load which is radial, or perpendicular to its axis, deflection of the filament takes place, the direction of deflection not generally being considered. However, if the brush construction is to be used for conveying flat material the direction of movement of which would be controlled, then, in order that the movement be perpendicular to the axis of the roll, the direction in which the brush filaments deflect must be controllable.

It is therefore a principal object of my invention to provide a conveyor roll in the 'form of a brush construction in which the brush filament deflection is controllable.

It is another object of my invention to provide a conveying roll wherein the conveyed material may adequately be cooled and yet will not be abraded, scratched, or marked.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a conveying roll which will accomplish the above objects and yet may provide the desired controlled movement.

It is still another object of my invention to provide a conveying roll especially adapted for conveying aluminum slabs or sheets through an annealing oven.

'Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

in said annexed drawings. I

FIG. 1 is an end elevation of one form of conveyor roll;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the conveyor roll of FIG. 1 taken substantially on the line 2.-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of another form of conveyor roll utilizing dished circular brush elements;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of yet another form of conveyor roll;

'FIG. 5 is an end elevation of still another form of conveyor roll; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of the conveyor roll form shown in FIG. 5 taken substantially on the line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings and especially FIGS. 1 and 2 thereof, the conveyor roll of this invention may comprise one or more turns of a circularized brush strip mounted upon a tubular arbor 1. This tubular arbor 1 may be provided with a keyway 2 to enable the conveyor roll to be mounted on a drive shaft in a conventional manner. As illustrated, the brush strip that may be employed with this invention may be formed substantially in the manner taught in Peterson Patent No. 2,303,386 and comprises radially extending brush bristle material 3 held Within a channel-form back 4 by means of a retaining member such as a wire 5 which is itself firmly held within such channel by means of overlying teeth 6 punched in from the respective sides of such channel for-m back. However, in the present inven tion, the brush strip is formed such that the bristles 3 project at a substantial angle to the back of the channelform back. Also, the legs of the channel-form back extend parallel to each other but again at a substantial angle to the back portion such that the entire brush strip may be considered to be slanted. As illustrated more clearly in FIG. 2, the arbor 1 is wound with two brush strips 7 and 8 with the inclination of the bristles 3 of each brush strip being such that the filaments will be inclined toward each other. The ends of the brush strip may be secured to the mandrel 1 in the conventional manner as shown at 9 and locking rings 10 and 11 may be placed upon the ends of the mandrel firmly to secure and axially compress the helically wound pair of brush strips.

In this manner, it will be seen when viewing the section of the brush in FIG. 2 that every other brush strip across the face of the brush will be inclined in opposite directions. Thus the brush bristles are intentionally tilted or inclined in one axial direction in one axial region of the brush and then equally tilted in the opposite axial direction in the next adjacent axial region of the brush alternating longitudinally of the brush. Consequently, the brush bristles in any one region will have a definite predetermined tendency to shift the work engaged thereby in a particular axial direction, but this will be counterbalanced by an equally definite tendency of the bristles in a corresponding region to shift the work in the opposite direction.

It will, of course, be understood that instead of the dual brush strip construction shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a single brush strip may be employed in which the brush strip channel back will have its sides inclined at length intervals, first in one axial direction and then in the other.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of annular brush sections 15 may be dished to incline the bristles in one axial direction, and such annular sections may then be mounted on an appropriate hub or arbor 16 with the bristles of adjacent sections inclined in opposite directions. Here the brush sections may comprise bristles 17 secured within slanted channel-form backs 18 and held by a U-shape annular retaining member 19. It will be understood that any form of annular brush section may be employed as long as it is dish-shape so that the bristles are properly inclined in one axial direction. Of course, instead of alternating the direction of bristle inclination in every adjacent section, two or more sections may be nested and the same number adjacent may also then be alternated, etc. In this form, a lock ring 19' also may be employed on the tubular arbor 16 firmly to hold the brush sections thereon.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is another form of the conveyor roll illustrated, which form may be a cylindrical tufted brush construction. This form is produced in accordance with the invention and may comprise an elongated cylindrical wooden hub 20 having a plurality of holes or sockets 21 therein to receive the tufts 22 of bristle material which may be fastened as by staples 23 and/or glued therewithin. In the form of roll shown in FIG. 4, axially adjacent holes or sockets are inclined or tilted relative to the aXis of the hub in opposite axial directions so that the thrust of the tuft of bristles on the work when deflected by engagement with the latter will be in a definite axial direction for each tuft, and accordingly, such thrusts will balance out.

In FIGS. and 6, there is illustrated a further form of the invention in which the hub or arbor 25 may again comprise a wooden or like cylinder having axial rows of holes or sockets 26 for tufts of bristles 27 held in such sockets by staples 28. Here again, the bristles may also be held by glue either alone or combined with the stples illustrated. In this form of the invention, circumferentially adjacent rows are inclined in opposite directions. Accordingly, referring to FIG. 5, it will be seen that the row of bristles shown at 29 is inclined slightly to the right whereas the row of bristles shown at 30 is inclined slightly to the left. In this form of the invention, the brush bristles are intentionally tilted or inclined in one axial direction in one circumferential region of the rotary brush and then tilted in the opposite axial direction in the next adjacent circumferential region of the brush, alternating circumferentially of the brush. Consequently, the brush bristles in any one circumferential region will have a definite predetermined tendency to shift the work engaged thereby in a particular axial direction, but this will be counterbalanced by an equally definite tendency of the bristles in the next adjacent circumferential region to shift the work in the opposite direction. Accordingly, as the conveyor roll rotates, the tendency of circumferentially adjacent tufts to shift the work in opposite directions will balance out.

It can now be seen that it has been discovered that when rotary brushes are utilized as conveyor rolls to support work such as slabs of aluminum, for example, and to advance the same through a furnace or the like, uniform straightline movement of the work is not ordinarily obtained since bending of the brush bristles may cause the work to be shifted laterally or even to be rotated rather than advanced as desired. It has been found that this is apparently not due principally to helical disposition of the turns of the brush strip forming the conveyor rollers since arrangement of helically wound brushes with turns of opposite hand have failed completely to solve .this problem.

In the construction of the brush, ordinary stainless steel wire bristles may be employed to advance heavy .slabs of aluminum through long heating furnaces at temperatures of, for example, 1100 F. The brush forms .shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 may employ wooden arbors especially treated to withstand heat and it will be under stood that the brush arbors may be perforated for ventilation purposes.

The particular angular inclination of the brush bristles may, of course, be varied somewhat depending upon the support desired to be obtained and it will be seen that adjacent oppositely substantially equally inclined brush bristles which slant toward each other will tend to support each other as though they were leaning against each other. Thus, axial compression on the bristles will be reduced as the result of the load of the slab or sheet being carried, and, of course, such slab or sheet will be more firmly supported.

It can now be seen that when rolls are made in accordance with the present invention to high standards, when either adjacent tufts or small groups of tufts are tilted in opposite directions a controlled amount, it becomes possible to cause the filaments to deflect in a predetermined direction and amount so as to make the overall effect of the brush on the work a neutral one with respect to axial thrust.

Other modes of applying the principles of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the features stated in any of the following claims or the equivalent of such be employed.

I, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

1. A conveyor roll for supporting moving work-pieces such as sheets and slabs comprising a central support adapted to rotate about a longitudinal axis and a large number of flexible bristle elements carried thereby and extending generally radially outwardly therefrom, said bristle elements being slightly inclined to such axis and the thus inclined outer ends of said elements forming in the aggregate a cylindrical work-piece supporting surface, substantially equal numbers of said elements being thus inclined in opposite directions transversely of the direction of movement of said roll and such work-pieces whereby lateral shifting of a work-piece resting on said roll is inhibited by resistance to deflection of said inclined elements in the directions opposite to those in which they are inclined.

2. The roll of claim 1, wherein said oppositely inclined bristle elements are distributed in a generally uniform manner so that any substantial transverse area of said roll comprises a generally equal number of said oppositely inclined elements.

3. The roll of claim. 1, wherein said roll comprises a number of annular sections in co-axial assembly with said bristle elements of each section being oppositely inclined to said bristle elements of adjacent sections.

4. The roll of claim 1, wherein said roll comprises a length of helically wound brush strip having an elongated back and said bristle elements extending therefrom, with said elongated back being deformed to incline the same and therefore said bristle elements first in one direction and then in the other axially of said roll, adjacent portions of adjacent turns being thus oppositely inclined.

5. The roll of claim 1, wherein said bristle elements are of wire.

6. The roll of claim 1, wherein said bristle elements are secured in sockets arranged in rows in said central support, the axes of said sockets and therefore of the tufts of bristle elements secured therein being inclined transversely to the direction of rotation of said support and the inclination of each such row being opposite to the inclination of an adjacent row.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,961,926 Gerhardt June 5, 1934 2,907,064 Erickson Oct. 6, 1959 2,921,328 Bongiovanni Jan. 19, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,117 Great Britain Jan. 25, 1888 

1. A CONVEYOR ROLL FOR SUPPORTING MOVING WORK-PIECES SUCH AS SHEETS AND SLABS COMPRISING A CENTRAL SUPPORT ADAPTED TO ROTATE ABOUT A LONGITUDINAL AXIS AND A LARGE NUMBER OF FLEXIBLE BRISTLE ELEMENTS CARRIED THEREBY AND EXTENDING GENERALLY RADIALLY OUTWARDLY THEREFROM, SAID BRISTLE ELEMENTS BEING SLIGHTLY INCLINED TO SUCH AXIS AND THE THUS INCLINED OUTER ENDS OF SAID ELEMENTS FORMING IN THE AGGREGATE A CYLINDRICAL WORK-PIECE SUPPORTING SURFACE, SUBSTANTIALLY EQUAL NUMBERS OF SAID ELEMENTS BEING THUS INCLINED IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS TRANSVERSELY OF THE DIRECTION OF MOVEMENT OF SAID ROLL AND SUCH WORK-PIECES WHEREBY LATERAL SHIFTING OF A WORK-PIECE RESTING ON SAID ROLL IS INHIBITED BY RESISTANCE TO DEFLECTION OF SAID INCLINED ELEMENTS IN THE DIRECTIONS OPPOSITE TO THOSE IN WHICH THEY ARE INCLINED. 